At least five of the Arabian Gulf's great metropolises including Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha could experience summer days that are literally too hot for human survival by the end of the century, a report has warned.

The rising global temperatures could push the temperature in these cities across a threshold unknown since the start of civilization, said a report in the Washington Post, citing a study.

The heat and humidity will be so high that even the healthiest people cannot withstand more than a few hours outdoors, a study by a pair of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Loyola Marymount University said.

The study, in the journal Nature Climate Change, examines different scenarios over the coming decades, focusing on a key heat measurement known as the ‘‘wet-bulb temperature,’’ which includes humidity and evaporation rates, averaged over several hours.

A wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees is regarded as the survivability limit for healthy people, the scientists said.

The report warned that booming cities such Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha could cross the threshold if temperatures continue to rise at current rates. Not far behind is the Saudi city of Makkah, a destination for millions of Muslim pilgrims every year, it added.

‘‘Our results expose a regional hotspot where climate change, in the absence of significant mitigation, is likely to severely impact human habitability in the future,’’ the scientists wrote in the report.

On the hottest days, the residents could experience a combination of heat and humidity so high that the human body is no longer capable of shedding the excess heat through perspiration, they added.

The report is the latest to highlight dangerous weather extremes that could be experienced in the relatively near future if atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue to rise at current rates.